[Make-wifi-fast] debugging TCP stalls on high-speed wifi

[Dave Taht]

On Thu, Dec 12, 2019 at 5:46 PM Eric Dumazet <eric.dumazet at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 12/12/19 4:59 PM, Simon Barber wrote:
> > I’m currently adding ACK thinning to Linux’s GRO code. Quite a simple addition given the way that code works.
> >
> > Simon
> >
> >
>
> Please don't.
>
> 1) It will not help since many NIC  do not use GRO.
>
> 2) This does not help if you receive one ACK per NIC interrupt, which is quite common.

Packets accumulate in the wifi device and driver, if that's the bottleneck.

>
> 3) This breaks GRO transparency.
>
> 4) TCP can implement this in a more effective/controlled way,
>    since the peer know a lot more flow characteristics.
>
> Middle-box should not try to make TCP better, they usually break things.

I generally have more hope for open source attempts at this than other
means. And there isn't much left
in TCP that will change in the future; it is an ossified protocol.

802.11n, at least, has a problem fitting many packets into an
aggregate. Sending less packets is a win
in multiple ways:

A) Improves bi-directional throughput
B) Reduces the size of the receivers txop (and retries) - the client
is also often running at a lower rate than
the ap.
C) Delivers the most current ack, sooner

When further transiting an aqm that uses random numbers, it hits the
right packet sooner, also.

I welcome experimentation in this area.



-- 
Make Music, Not War

Dave Täht
CTO, TekLibre, LLC
http://www.teklibre.com
Tel: 1-831-435-0729